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Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Defying the Emperor
Nox and Rookwood take a shuttle-pod into the mirror universe, where they discover a ship from the past, now in the hands of Empress Sato. Summary Chapter One The two ships are en route to Tholian space. Routine crew profiles are being logged into the computers of both ships while in warp. Alicia Rookwood is having problems: according to the computer, there is already a crew profile listed under her name. She looks it up and discovers this "other" Rookwood, who had died several months ago at Narendra III. But what made her very shocked was the CMO's note: preserved on Ten-Forward. Rookwood went to Ten-Forward and discovered several cryogenic cylinders. In one of them, which was offline, she found her prime universe counterpart. She left in a shock. But she forgot to re-seal the temperature-chamber around the cylinders. This being done, the cylinders detect an increase in temperature, and so start the de-thawing and reanimation procedure: there were only two cylinders in the chamber Rookwood left open, one held her dead prime universe counterpart, the other held someone else who wasn't entirely dead. Chapter Two Upon entering Tholian space, the ships encounter a Tholian ship. The ship sends out a distress call, and several other ships enter the vicinity. While there, they discover a spatial anomaly: Edward Shield asks Young if it might be that anomaly encountered by James T. Kirk years ago. Overhearing this is Rookwood, who seizes her chance just before the shields are raised to beam onto the . She then spirits Nox and Y'Radu away from Young and takes them to the shuttle-bay. In a shuttle-pod, they depart the ''Admonitor'' under heavy fire from the Tholian ships, and enter the spatial rift. Once they reach the other side, Rookwood reveals to Nox and Y'Radu that, in her reality, it is known what this spatial anomaly was: a trans-dimensional rift that created a link between two universes. Rookwood tells them that, because she realized that she was dead in the prime universe, she would show them her universe where Romulans do not exist. Suddenly, she turns ashen pale. A ship has appeared on their scanners: the . From it comes a message from Empress Sato who demands that their ship power down and surrender or be destroyed. Chapter Three Nox prepares to resist, telling Rookwood and Y'Radu that the ''Defiant'' is a starship, which is greatly outdated in Starfleet, as far as he knows. However, they soon learn that this ship's weapons have been upgraded when the shuttle-pod's shields are shut down in one blow. Sato then beams her prisoners into the Brig, where she will interrogate them personally. Ten hours later, the Defiant has reached Bajor. Sato tells her first officer that she plans to use the Bajoran wormhole to seek new planets to conquer. When he tells her that the Terran Empire has been dead since the Battle of Khitomer, she kills him on the spot, saying that she IS the Terran Empire - saying that she could not have survived the poison attempts by her consort Shran or even old age had destiny not ordained her to be the Empress for life of the Terran Empire - and that anyone who doubts her will join him. She then leaves and goes to the Brig. Upon reaching the Brig, she is amazed to learn that the "Vulcan" (as the Terran guard calls Nox, since he has never seen or heard of Romulans) has survived all ten hours of the Agony Booth. She tells them to put him under another ten until he cracks, but warns them that they will die if he does during the torture. She then confronts Rookwood. Upon seeing the Terran insignia tattooed onto her shoulder, as well as her Terran MACO serial number beneath it, she realizes that she was part of the soldier program which began back in the 22nd century. Amazed that it might have actually worked in the future, Sato begins to give Rookwood commands. She obeys them, even so far as to give Sato military secrets of the Federation, which Sato apparently knows about. Through this, she learns that the ''Defiant'' is now obsolete. Just around that time, a battleship drops out of warp. The Cardassians demand to know why a Terran ship is in their space, since they say that all Terrans are slaves. Sato destroys its shields and kills all the Cardassians by beaming them out into the vacuum of space. She does all of this in front of Rookwood, to remind her who her real master is truly. Rookwood replies that her loyalty is always for the Empire, and would be so, she states, even if it opposed the Federation and her captain. Chapter Four Meanwhile, Nox has endured the pain of the Agony Booth only because of his resilience to pain due to years on Typhon III. But the invading katra takes over, and he breaks his way out of the booth and kills the guards. Using their security clearance codes gained through mind-melding, he is able to access the ship's schematics, as well as its recent orders: the ship is to be destroyed within the hour. As he prepares to leave, he is attacked by a Vulcan crewmember of the , which turns out to be Y'Radu in disguise. She tells him that they need to leave, but that she can think of no way to return to Tholian space. Nox then tells takes his shot-gun, which she had taken from him before their capture, and chooses to take control of the Defiant and use it to return to their own universe. Meanwhile, Empress Sato and her crew have taken the Cardassian battleship. With the Defiant mostly powered down, it will be an easy target to be destroyed. She decides that, to ensure its destruction, she fires a tricobalt warhead (taken from the Tholians during one of her battles with them) at the Defiant, only to be amazed when it comes back online and avoids the missile. Just then, Nox sends a message, saying that she has underestimated his species. Only Sato recognizes his race, and she tells him that he's quite brave, since his own people would have killed themselves in the same position. This angers Nox to where he open-fires on the Cardassian battleship, but is suddenly reminded just how obsolete the starship is when its weapons do no damage, but the enemy ship deals severe hull breaches on various levels. Nox takes Y'Radu and prepares to abandon ship, saying that Rookwood can survive on her own. He takes the Enterprise-C's shuttle, which was left in the hangar of the ''Defiant'', and leaves the ship. At that moment, Rookwood beams into the shuttle, stating that she barely escaped the Cardassian ship with her life. Sato prepares to fire again at the Defiant, but suddenly the Bajoran wormhole opens up. The first tricobalt warhead detonates within it, causing its rapid breakdown. In the process, an interphasic rift is opened that pulls the Defiant and the shuttle-pod therein. Sato prepares to pursue, but is warned that their ship will not survive if they do. Seeing this as their end, Sato bids farewell to the "dead" enemies and then takes their captured ship out of the system. Chapter Five Meanwhile, the ''Enterprise''-C and the ''Admonitor'' have left Tholian space after catastrophically failed negotiations. Shield and Young prepare to declare the three who left as AWOL or dead, until a subspace message from Bajor comes in with Nox saying: :"What the expletive is up, Shield? We're in need of your aid and you're still in expletive Tholian space?" They send both ships to Bajoran space, regardless that it is still under Cardassian Occupation, where they find the missing shuttle-pod and rescue their missing comrades. In their quarters later, the three of them agree not to tell anyone of what has happened, since it might not have any affect on them right now. However, Y'Radu has noticed that Rookwood has not been the same since they returned. She brushes it off, but there is actually something very different indeed with her... Category:Star Trek: Conflict Episodes Category:Story Arc: Mirror Conflict Category:Mirror Universe Stories